Lauren Honkomp
CENTERVILLE, Ind. – Friday’s win was icing on the cake for the Centerville girls basketball team.
The Bulldogs celebrated Head Coach Jason Searcy’s 100th career win with some cake after beating Northeastern 39-25 in a Tri-Eastern Conference affair.
“It’s a nice milestone,” Searcy said. “A lot of credit goes to the players I’ve had. You have to have the players to win games and they’ve always done what I’ve asked them to do.”
Lauren Honkomp was the one on the spot in the final period as she scored 10 of her game-high 16 points.
“Lauren sometimes is too unselfish,” Searcy said. “She can get to the rim about anytime she wants to. She really took over the game in the fourth quarter.”
Centerville led 24-17 after three quarters and gave up a basket to begin the final stanza.
Honkomp’s answer was to score the next eight points to give the Bulldogs a 32-19 advantage with 3:18 left to play. Centerville was able to maintain its distance the rest of the way.
“Offensively, we just struggled,” Searcy said. “I thought we got the looks we needed, but we didn’t finish them quite the way we needed to.”
“Defensively, I was really pleased with their effort,” Searcy continued. “I thought they were in their face most of the night, switched screens very well and hedged. I thought they did a good job defensively and that’s what really won the game for us.”
Centerville led 10-6 after one period and 18-9 at halftime before the Knights to closed the gap to set up Honkomp’s run.
Mikayla Hornung
In addition to leading the Bulldogs (3-7, 1-1) in scoring, Honkomp pulled down 10 rebounds. Merissa Ross finished with 12 points. Kaylin Smith also had eight rebounds for the Bulldogs.
For the Knights (1-8, 0-3), Mikayla Hornung led the way with nine points, while Madi Clay tossed in six. Kasey Andrews added 13 rebounds.
Northeastern welcomes National Trail on Saturday, Dec. 5.
Centerville is back on its home court against TEC frontrunner Union City on Wednesday, Dec. 9.
NORTHEASTERN (1-8, 0-3) – Tatum Jordan 1 0-0 2, Madi Clay 2 0-0 6, Chaise Helton 1 0-0 2, Leah Hoskins 0 1-2 1, Mikayla Hornung 3 3-7 9, Kasey Andrews 1 1-2 3, Lauren York 1 0-0 2. Team – 9 5-11 25.
CENTERVILLE (3-7, 1-1) – Lauren Honkomp 7 2-3 16, Merissa Ross 3 4-4 12, Savanna Kates 0 3-6 3, Kaylin Smith 1 1-2 3, Madilyn Coomes 0 0-0 0, Cassidy Weiss 1 2-2 5, Maggie Curts 0 0-0 0, Alex McFarland 0 0-0 0, Mackenzie Tipton 0 0-0 0. Team – 12 12-17 39.
Centerville 10 18 24 39